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Oneworld Says No To Don Mueang
24th Apr 2013
All the 12 full-member airlines of oneworld are not keen on moving their base from Suvarnabhumi to Bangkok's older airport. Oneworld is an alliance of 12 airlines founded in 1999 by five of the world's largest airline companies namely, American Airlines, British Airways, now-defunct Canadian Airlines (survived by Air Canada upon their merger in 2000), Cathay Pacific, and Qantas.
The alliance has denied the report that they plan to move their operations to Don Mueang.
They consider the old airport as unsuitable for their operations for lack of world-class services and facilities that can cater to their respective clients. According to its vice-president for corporate communications, Michael Blunt, the old airport lags behind the modern Suvarnabhumi Airport in almost all aspects found in a world-class international airport.
The alliance is simply keeping their promise to their respective clients, especially business travelers, whose demands are high during their travel. It further said that it is their business to provide seamless connections and easy access to destinations where their members fly to and only Suvarnabhumi support that need.
Though member airlines have their own prerogative which airport they choose to base their operations from, none has indicated to transfer to Don Mueang.
This is contrary to earlier claim by AoT chairman Sqn Ldr Sita Divari who reportedly told the media that oneworld is showing interest to move their bases to the newer airport. He even claimed that the alliance has urged the government to upgrade the older airport to be able to handle superjumbo jets such as A380s. An alliance official has denied making such request to the Thai government.
Recently, the government is doubling its campaign effort to reposition the older airport into an international gateway as it used to be before the opening of Suvarnabhumi in 2006. Since then, Don Mueang lost its status and has been only underutilized, mainly by a few budget local carriers.
Suvarnabhumi Airport has been operating above capacity since last year, handling over 50 million passengers.
The deluge in 2011 that flooded large parts of Bangkok inundated the runway of Don Mueang making it completely unusable, forcing it to close its operation for almost five months before it was opened again in March last year.
The oneworld official also opined that a major world capital, like Bangkok, should maintain a single hub for full-service airlines to provide easy and hassle-free travel rather than having two separate airports which is inconvenient to travelers, especially those who are on transit or having connecting flights.
The alliance official also reiterated that none of their members are planning to desert Suvarnabhumi and move to Don Mueang Airport.
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